The invention is in the field of house plants, and particularly relates to means of easily removing a potted plant from one pot, usually to transplant it into another.
There have been patents obtained in the past on numerous varieties of paper and other sheet material folded and bent in particular ways to form different types of plant pots. Although conceivably these units could be unfolded to free the pot member from the soil inside, such would involve disengaging the interlocking structure of the unit and perhaps ruining the folding pot in the process by pressing the unit into a service for which it was not intended. Other attempts have been made to create a breakaway pot which separates or folds into several distinct pieces to permit the easy removal of the root and soil mass for transplanting. A pot of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,921 issued to Takeshi Moriwaki in 1977.
Yet another thrust at solving the same problem is exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 1,638,693 issued in 1927. The device of this patent is a rigid disk bottom piece having blades extended up the side flush with the interior of the pot. By rotating the entire structure, the blades cut through the root mass, or scrape the root mass from the sides of the pot, subsequent to which the devise and the root mass can be lifted free of the pot. Although this device appears to be an advance in the art, it would have to be manufactured exactly to the shape of the interior of the pot to be effective, and the blades are subject to the possibility of damaging the root structure. In addition, it is fairly likely that there would be a tendency to twist the unit in the event the plant was firmly rootbound.
Aside from theoretical developments, there is no currently prevalent simple means of removing potted plants from their containers. Because a plant might require transplanting several times between seedling and maturity, and each time it is transplanted it suffers unnecessary trauma, as well as the risk of death, it is advantageous to provide the ordinary plant part with a means of simply and cheaply transplanting the root mass while minimizing the danger of damage to the roots.